Poem-5
Father to Son
Poet-Elizabeth Jennings
✍️ Introduction about the Poet:
Elizabeth Jennings (1926–2001) was a well-known English poet recognized for her deep emotional expression and religious themes. Her poetry often focuses on human relationships, emotions, and personal struggles. In “Father to Son,” she explores the communication gap between a father and his son, expressing the father’s pain, confusion, and longing to rebuild the lost bond.
📝 Summary of the Poem:
The poem is a monologue by a father who laments that he no longer understands his son. Despite living under the same roof, they have grown emotionally distant. The father expresses his desire to bridge the gap and rebuild their relationship, but he feels helpless. The poem explores themes of parent-child relationships, generation gap, and the struggle to communicate emotions.
📖 Stanza-wise Explanation:
🔹 Stanza 1:
I do not understand this child
Though we have lived together now
In the same house for years.
I know nothing of him, so try
To build up a relationship from how
He was when small.
📌 Explanation:
The father begins by admitting that he doesn’t understand his son anymore, even though they have lived together for years. He feels that he no longer knows who his son has become and wishes to reconnect with the child he once knew.
🔹 Stanza 2:
Yet have I killed
The seed I spent or sown it where
The land is his and none of mine?
We speak like strangers, there’s no sign
Of understanding in the air.
This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
📌 Explanation:
The father wonders if he is responsible for the emotional distance, asking whether he planted his values in the wrong place. Despite the son being his own child ("built to my design"), they now speak like strangers, and the father can’t relate to or share his son’s interests. There is a deep disconnect between them.
🔹 Stanza 3:
Silence surrounds us. I would have
Him prodigal, returning to
His father’s house, the home he knew,
Rather than see him make and move
His world. I would forgive him too,
Shaping from sorrow a new love.
📌 Explanation:
The father describes the silence between them and compares his desire to the biblical story of the prodigal son—hoping his son will return to him. He would happily forgive him for any past mistakes and wants to rebuild their bond based on love and sorrow.
🔹 Stanza 4:
Father and son, we both must live
On the same globe and the same land,
He speaks: I cannot understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.
📌 Explanation:
In the final stanza, the poet shows that both father and son are suffering from this emotional distance, even though they share the same space ("same globe and land"). The son also cannot understand himself, and his grief turns into anger. Both of them reach out for connection, but instead of words, they only offer empty hands, seeking forgiveness and understanding.
🎯 Themes:
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Parent-child communication gap
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Emotional distance within family
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Regret and forgiveness
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Longing for love and understanding
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Miscommunication and loneliness
💡 Poetic Devices Used:
| Device | Example |
|---|---|
| Allusion | “Prodigal” refers to the Biblical story |
| Metaphor | “Seed I spent or sown” – father’s efforts/values |
| Repetition | “I do not understand…” – stress on disconnection |
| Paradox | “Built to my design, yet what he loves I cannot share” |
| Imagery | “Empty hand,” “Silence surrounds us” |
✨ Message / Moral:
The poem shows how emotional distance can grow even within close relationships when communication is lost. It reminds us that love and understanding must be mutual and continuously nurtured. Both father and son desire to reconnect, but struggle to express it openly.
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